Capitol Hill knows how to party

The Capitol Hill Block Party is a celebration of Seattle's strong rock-music community and of Seattle's hippest neighborhood, aka the Hill.

It's the one weekend of the year when the whole Hill — the well-dressed trendies living in upscale condos; old-timers and impoverished students from dilapidated apartment buildings; colorful young street people roaming Broadway; faculty, staff and students from Seattle Community College's Broadway campus; even folks from the medical community on nearby Pill Hill — come together with visitors from all over the Northwest for some music, cold beer, shopping, fun food and some of the best people-watching of the summer.

Capitol Hill is also the center of Seattle's gay community. The diversity of the Block Party is one of the main reasons that it's a standout and different from every other festival. They do things at the Block Party that they don't do at Bumbershoot, the Folklife Festival or Seafair.

The annual party is bigger than ever, with its very best music lineup, including local hip-hop favorites Blue Scholars; last year's Block Party breakout band Silversun Pickups; Against Me!, the group Spin Magazine says has just released the best album of the year, "New Wave"; the Cribs, the U.K. punk band whose new album, "Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever," got a four-star review in Rolling Stone; and the Brooklyn duo Matt & Kim, probably the best-reviewed band (Spin, Village Voice, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal) of the year.

Festival organizer David Meinert, of local management company Fuzed Music, is particularly buzzed about the winner of last month's "Block Star" amateur competition for a performance slot at the party. He's a 2003 emigrant from Japan who performs under the name PWRFL Power, playing the mainstage at 2 p.m. Saturday.

"He's an amazing guitarist," Meinert gushed, "everybody who saw him said so." Meinert described PWRFL Power's songs as weird, charming and sweet.

The Block Party goes on long into the night, with the outdoor stages running until 11 p.m. and the nightclub stages going until closing time at 2 a.m. That makes for a kind of two-prong festival — during the day it's chock-a-block with families and children, at night it's more an over-21 crowd.

Meinert says the layout is more navigable this year ("The fencing is not so ugly — but only I seem to think that's a big deal"); more of the businesses inside the party gates are involved; there's stronger sponsorship, which keeps the ticket-price low; and among the political booths and speakers there's an emphasis on health-care, especially insurance, for musicians, street people and the poor.

"There's a bunch of bars and restaurants inside the gates, so you have a lot of choices," he said, pointing out that tickets include in-out privileges. "Businesses all over the Hill say this is their best weekend of the year."

Parking is not a problem, he said, because there are plenty of lots and spots in the neighborhood. A big chunk of Block Partygoers walk there, and several bus lines stop near the festival entrance. Check the Block Party's excellent Web site (www.capitolhillblockparty.com) for driving and parking information, as well as profiles of most of the bands and full festival details.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312 or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com